Misdiagnosis
by WeasleySeeker
Summary: Rose Weasley has always hated Scorpius Malfoy. But has she been misdiagnosing her feelings?


**A/N: This fic is a joint birthday present for Summer (Passive Agressive), Isha (if we still belong) and Kim (Incoherent Rambler). Hope you enjoy it (and Summer, sorry it's so late!).**

* * *

**_i: A New Start_**

Rose took the familiar route down to the dungeons, dragging her feet reluctantly at the thought of her destination.

She heard footsteps from around the corner, and she initially thought it would be just another Slytherin coming up to breakfast like all the others she'd passed, but as she approached, she saw that it was her cousin, Albus.

"Hey!" Rose called, and Albus started, but then realised who it was.

"Hi," Al greeted her, smiling, and Rose realised how much she missed her cousin. As children, they had been round at each other's houses almost every day in life and got on really well. But then they went to Hogwarts, and Albus was sorted into Slytherin, while Rose became a Gryffindor. There was no resentment between them for that, of course - Slytherins were much more respected than in their parents' days - but it meant that they had migrated to different friendship groups over the years, and weren't in any lessons together, so at Hogwarts they barely ever saw each other. "What are you doing down here?" Albus asked, confused. "Shouldn't you be going up to breakfast with your friends?"

Rose shook her head bitterly. "I have to see Fairchild," she said, making a face. "She thought it would be funny to give me a detention before breakfast instead of in the evening like normal teachers."

"Why would she do that? Come to think of it, why would she give you a detention at all? I thought you were amazing at Potions. Aren't you?" Albus demanded.

"I'm not bad," Rose admitted modestly, "but apparently I have an attitude problem." She rolled her eyes. "And she also wants me to stop being late for first period."

Albus laughed. Rose had definitely inherited her mother's brains, but most of her other traits - her temper, her sharp tongue and her fondness for sleeping, for a start - had probably come from her father. "It feels like I haven't seen you for ages," he said after a pause. "Got any plans for the Hogsmeade weekend? Maybe we could meet up."

Rose smiled. "That'd be nice, actually. I think there was _sort of_ a plan to go dress shopping for with the girls, but to be honest I'd be glad of an excuse to escape it," she said, grinning sheepishly. Some of the girls in her dorm were so annoying, and they were even worse when they went shopping. Rose had never been a huge fan of shopping. "Hey, we could go for a picnic or something," she suggested. "Just like old times." Their mothers had often taken them on picnics together before they started school.

"Sounds good to me," Albus said, smiling. "Hey - you'd better get to your detention."

"Oh yeah!" Rose exclaimed, checking her watch. "Oops. I guess I'll see you around." She dashed down the corridor, wondering what insults Fairchild would have in store for her this time.

* * *

The Hogsmeade weekend finally arrived, and as Rose walked down from the dorm to the Entrance Hall to be signed out by the teachers, she was already bored out of her brain from hearing her roommates just _talk_ about the dresses they wanted to buy. She was immensely glad that she didn't have to put up with them for a whole day.

"Hey, Rose," Lauren Martin, one of the more annoying Gryffindor girls called, "when will you get a dress for the party if you're not coming with us?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know, I'll probably just borrow off one of my cousins," she said. That was the advantage of having a big family where people were willing to lend.

Lauren looked scandalised. "But... it's nowhere near as fun if you don't buy your own!"

"Yeah, it is," Rose argued. "You don't have to trail around loads different shops for hours on end and then come back to the first one you saw, and you don't have to spend any money. And I have so many cousins - I won't exactly be short of choice."

"Lauren, you know Rose has never liked shopping," Alice Longbottom told Lauren, laughing at her expression. "But I'm surprised that even Rose would rather spend a day with _Scorpius Malfoy_."

"Wait... what?" Rose demanded, looking at her best friend in horror. It was common knowledge that if Rose had a choice, she would definitely not be living in the same area of the globe as Scorpius Malfoy. Everybody was relieved when they were put into different OWL classes. "No, you idiot, what are you talking about? I'm going with Al. My _cousin_."

"Who is best friends with Scorpius," Alice added. "I overheard them talking earlier. Scorpius said he had nobody to go with as Nott's in detention, so Al said he could come with you two."

Rose hadn't thought of that. "You must have misunderstood. He wouldn't do that," she insisted. "I wouldn't just bring you along without asking him. That's just rude."

"You would," Alice pointed out. The other girls had resumed their conversation about dresses, disinterested.

Rose made a face. "Okay, I probably would," she admitted. "But... it's _Malfoy_! He's an exception to these things. I can't stand him!"

"Are you quite sure about that?" Alice asked sarcastically. "Rose, I think everyone in the school knows that. But you should probably stop making such a fuss about it, or people might think you _fancy_ him." There was a teasing glint in Alice's eyes which rapidly disappeared as Rose glared at her. "Seriously, though," Alice continued, "I can't understand why you hate him so much. I actually quite like him."

"Well then why don't _you_ go on a bloody picnic with him?" Rose grumbled as they reached the Entrance Hall.

"Because you're meant to be catching up with your cousin, remember?" said Alice exasperatedly. They looked around; Albus was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Scorpius. "You were looking forward to this, Rose."

"Yes, but that was before I knew _he_ was coming. He's an arrogant, sarcastic, smarmy little -"

"Just stop it," Alice interrupted. "When was the last time you actually spoke to Scorpius?" Rose didn't say anything. She actually had no idea. "Exactly," Alice said triumphantly. "Probably sometime in about second year. I'm in some lessons with him, and he's actually quite nice to talk to." Rose stayed in stony silence and Alice sighed. "Look, Rose, don't let your old prejudices get in the way of having a good time."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Fine. I won't argue with Malfoy, even though he's the most annoying person ever to have lived and I could never agree with anything he could possibly ever say. Happy?"

Alice said nothing, her eyes suddenly fixed on a point somewhere over Rose's shoulder. _Oh, Merlin, he's standing right behind me, isn't he? _Rose thought despairingly. She turned round and was proved correct. _Albus is so dead_. He knew that she and Scorpius didn't get on. He could at least have warned her that he was coming. At least she had managed to withhold some of the more strongly-worded insults she'd had in mind.

"Hi, Rose," Scorpius said, smiling infuriatingly. "So I take it you've already heard that I'm coming with you?"

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. She could feel the blush colouring her ears. She fixed her eyes on Al, who was a while behind Scorpius, still coming up the stairs.

"I'll leave you to it," Alice mumbled quickly, ignoring Rose's pleading look and leaving her alone with Scorpius.

Scorpius looked at her seriously. "Look, Rose, I know you don't like me, but we could at least be civil. We'll both enjoy the day a lot more if we are."

As much as she didn't want to agree with him, Rose realised that Scorpius had a point. "Okay," she accepted reluctantly, just as Al reached them.

"Hey," he said brightly, making Rose feel guilty for even considering having a go at him. "So I guess Scorpius told you he's coming with us? Sorry I didn't ask you." Albus looked a bit on edge, probably worried about how Rose was going to react.

"It's fine," Rose said, forcing a smile. "We couldn't exactly make him walk around Hogsmeade on his own, could we?"

Albus visibly relaxed, and Scorpius looked relieved; he seemed to have been expecting an outburst of some kind from Rose. Rose was slightly offended by this for a moment, but then she supposed that it would kind of fit in with her previous behaviour.

Rose decided to stop being so childish. You can't really judge a fifteen-year-old from what you remember of them three years ago. Rose looked at Scorpius curiously. She decided to give him a chance.

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**A/N: Well I wasn't going to do this, but I've just decided to make this a multichap! I don't think it will be long, maybe only three or four chapters, and I don't know how quick the updates will be, but meh. Inspiration :)**

**On another note, I don't normally go down the enemies-turned-lovers route for Rose/Scorpius, so this is completely new territory for me - kind of an experiment. :)**


End file.
